With a 10-foot snowpack and dry weather ahead, Tahoe is ready for skiers

After recent heavy snowfall, this drone pilot from the Lake Tahoe area of California recorded some footage of the landscape. The snow-covered trees and buildings show the extent of the precipitation. Credit: YouTube/Steve Tietze via Storyful

Media: YouTube/Steve Tietze via Storyful

After a big weekend blizzard and dry weather forecast in the coming week, the Tahoe region is preparing for the skiing masses.

Another storm pounded the northern Sierra Nevada over the weekend, dumping three to six feet of snow in many areas.

Piles of snow and slushy roads paralyzed the region. Alpine Meadows closed and Squaw Valley operated with limited lifts due to avalanche risk, poor visibility and extremely high winds. Sugarbowl never opened on Sunday.

Highway 80 closed and finally opened early this morning with chain control. Highway 89 near Alpine Meadows closed after an avalanche poured onto the road and hit two vehicles. While crews have pushed the snow to the side of the road, the highway remains closed in case of additional avalanches.

24-hour snowfall totals for the north Sierra Nevada: January 22 to 23, 2017

24-hour snowfall totals for the north Sierra Nevada: January 22 to 23, 2017

Photo: Getty

Photo: Getty

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24-hour snowfall totals for the north Sierra Nevada: January 22 to 23, 2017

24-hour snowfall totals for the north Sierra Nevada: January 22 to 23, 2017

Photo: Getty

With a 10-foot snowpack and dry weather ahead, Tahoe is ready for skiers

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Today, road crews and resorts are cleaning up as the snow flurries diminish. Skiers can count on epic ski conditions as a dry period is forecast over the next week beginning Tuesday morning.

The snowpack above 6,000 feet is around 10 feet and up to 20 feet at the highest peaks, according to the National Weather Service. The Northern Sierra–Trinity snowpack is running 158% of average as of Jan. 23.

"This winter is just pretty much crushing a lot of records we've had around the region," said Chris Smallcomb, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service's Reno office. "When we look at the Northern Sierra, we're seeing numbers like we did during the 1983 El Niño winter."

Smallcomb said the January precipitation numbers in Reno are emblematic of what has happened throughout the Sierra.

The 7.6 inches of precipitation recorded at the Reno-Tahoe International airport across Jan. 22 and Jan. 23 was the 17th-largest 24-hour snowfall total since records began in 1937.